


The Road to Redemption

by sunkelles



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Crack, F/F, Family Feels, Femslash, Fluff, Ketsu is not good at this whole "interacting with people" thing, Kissing, Pet Names, Shovel talks, Spoilers for Twilight of the Apprentice, The Mandalorian Lesbians, This can be called "that fic where Ketsu pisses a lot of people off"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 20:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6486526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sabine has decided to give Ketsu another chance, but the crew of the Ghost isn't quite as forgiving as she is. </p><p>or five "conversations" Ketsu has with Sabine's family, and one that she has with Sabine herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Road to Redemption

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is kind of ooc to be completely honest. i just really wanted to write some sabine/ketsu and it didn't feel right leaving the space family out of it. so here is my ridiculous fic that's set after the twilight of the apprentice. 
> 
> also, sabine and ketsu are one of the only ships that i have where i head-canon both of the girls as lesbians so there's no way that i'm not taking advantage of that and calling them the mandalorian lesbians. 
> 
> the zeb and ezra ones have varying degrees of angst.

0.

 

Ketsu Onyo had never planned on joining the rebellion. The thought had never even crossed her mind. The rebels were doomed, and the whole galaxy knew it. How could anyone ever hope to take on the Empire? But then, Ketsu found Sabine again, and it was so hard to get the the other girl out of her head. When they first knew each other Sabine wasn’t a rebel any more than Ketsu was, but time has changed the both of them.

Sabine, at least, time has changed for the better. It changed her from the girl Ketsu called “little sister”, split bounties with and left for dead so long ago into a strong, kind, _forgiving_ woman, and it makes Ketsu go weak in the knees. She’s a huge lesbian, always had been, and always will be, but she never really expected to be attracted to Sabine. Ketsu supposes that sometimes things still surprise her.

Sabine had always made her better. She made her a better person, and made her feel better about herself. It just took some time alone, slipping further and further into the moral grey zones Sabine never would have traveled into to make her see that. Ketsu joined the ended up joining the rebellion for Sabine, something that she could never have seen herself doing before. Now she has somehow integrated herself into it. It’s a weird concept.

 

She and Sabine see each other fairly often for the first few weeks, making friendly conversation and coming _tantalizingly_ close to being as close as Ketsu would like to be, but Sabine doesn’t really start seeking her out until after the disastrous events on Malachor. Ketsu doesn’t know all of the details, and expects that she never will but she does know the gist of it. Kanan came back blind, Ezra came back broken, and Ahsoka didn’t come back at all.

It’s difficult for Sabine and her family to deal with, and.. Maybe Ketsu is taking advantage. She knows that Sabine is spending more time away from the Ghost because it’s hard being at home, but they actually work together and Ketsu is trying so hard to be good this time around. She doesn’t think that it’s too selfish to allow it to happen.

Then, things escalate. They start talking about their actual hopes and fears, and the things that they experienced when they were away from each other. A touch on the knee, a slight brushing of hands, and then suddenly, they’re kissing, and it’s the best thing Ketsu’s ever done in her life. She’s laughing happily into the other girl’s mouth, when suddenly Sabine breaks the kiss to roll her eyes.

“Just kiss me, Ket,” Sabine says, sounding a little exasperated.

“Of course, little sister,” Ketsu says flirtily. Sabine frowns and pulls back completely.

“You ruined the moment,” Sabine says, a little bit teasing and a little bit accusing.

“Babe,” she says, almost frantically, “what did I do?” She really doesn’t want to fuck things up when she’s come this close.

“You know what’s not sexy?” Sabine demands, “calling me little sister. That’s _sterile_ , not sexy.”

“So what you’re saying is-”

“Don't call me little sister anymore, Ket,” Sabine says, and Ketsu laughs, deep and throaty. She thinks that she’s making progress.

“I wouldn't dream of it, Bine,” she says, and she kisses Sabine again. This time she doesn’t laugh, and Sabine kisses right back.

They start dating after that, and they do so for a more than a month without it going down in flames. Ketsu considers that a great accomplishment because most of her relationships meet a fiery end around the first month mark. Then, Sabine decides that it’s time to introduce her to the crew as her girlfriend. Ketsu is nervous, really _really_ nervous. She knows how much Sabine loves her adopted family, and how much their opinion matters to her. Ketsu also knows that there is no way in the galaxy that they’re actually going to end up liking her.

 

But Ketsu’s not one to back down from a challenge, and she’s certainly not going to tell Sabine that she won’t meet her family. The fact that Sabine _wants_ her to shows just how much progress she’s made.

  
  
1. 

 

The day of reckoning finally arrives, and they have what amounts to dinner on _The Ghost._ No one is outright hostile, or at least, no one is _overly_ hostile. Ketsu can deal with a few passive aggressive comments and glares. She’s spent years as a bounty hunter, and even spent some time in Black Sun. She’s got a thick enough hide not to be bothered by little things like that. Afterwards the group dispurses to go play a game of Sabacc and Ketsu lags a little behind.

 

This, of course, gives Captain Syndulla time to corner her, or at least, stand between her and the closed door. The _Ghost_ isn’t a big ship, but apparently, the captain doesn’t care much if the rest of the crew hears their confrontation. Hera crosses her arms over her chest and glares at her.

“Ketsu Onyo,” Hera says.

“Hera Syndulla,” Ketsu replies, because she doesn’t have any idea what else to say.

“You’re the one that left Sabine for dead years ago,” she says. Ketsu doesn’t respond. She can’t deny it, but she doesn’t want to verbally confirm it either. Her lack of response just seems to piss the woman off even more.

“You hurt her again,” Hera says icily, “and I will have you blackballed in the rebellion.”

“What?” Ketsu asks.

“I’m a captain,” Hera says, “if I say the word, I can have you discredited throughout this entire operation. Plus, after deserting Black Sun and joining the rebellion, I doubt anyone else would hire you either.” Ketsu nods sharply, and doesn’t speak. She doesn’t have any way to defend herself, and it’s not as though Hera’s concern is invalid.

“Aren’t you going to defend yourself?” The twi-lek asks, raising an eyebrow. Ketsu honestly didn’t even know twi-leks had eyebrows before today.

“No,” Ketsu says. This somehow makes Hera even _more_ suspicious.

“Are you saying that I’m right?” Hera demands, and Ketsu realizes what she’s really asking. _Are you saying that you’ll hurt her again?_

“No,” Ketsu says feeling her frustration grow, “I just- I understand your concerns, but I’d _never_ hurt Sabine again.”

“The whole crew is holding you to that,” Hera says with a hint of a smile. Ketsu doesn’t know whether or not she should be concerned by that. She doesn’t say anything, though, for fear of making the woman hate her more.

“So make sure to treat her well,” Hera says, and she pats Ketsu patronizingly on the shoulder. She leaves the room to join the others in their game of Sabacc, and Ketsu sits down and takes a deep breath. She’s not emotionally prepared to deal with more of this today.

 

2.

 

After that, Ketsu ends up on _the Ghost_ a lot more often, probably more than she’d like. This time, Sabine just has to grab her purse and some credits from her room, so that really shouldn’t be enough time for another member of the family to threaten Ketsu. Apparently, it is.

“So I heard that Hera let you know what would happen if you hurt Sabine?” Kanan says. He’s sitting down at the table, but he’s facing her. He’s not _looking_ at her, of course, but Ketsu feels watched, _judged_. Ketsu starts to nod, but then realizes  that that’s not going to cut it with the blind guy.

“Yeah,” she says, “she did.”

“Hera would ruin you indirectly,” Kanan says, “but the rest of us, we’d be a lot more _direct.”_ It takes Ketsu a moment to realize that he’s threatening to beat her up. She starts laughing, which is probably the _worst_ thing that she could have done. He stretches his hand out, and a moment later her blaster is flying through the air. He catches it perfectly. Ketsu _knows_ that Kanan is a Jedi, it’s just sort of easy to forget. She doesn’t think that she’ll be forgetting again any time soon.

“I might be blind,” he says, “but I can still kick your ass.” He tosses her back the blaster, and Ketsu catches it and she slips it quickly back into her holster.

“Noted,” she says sharply. This seems to actually make him angry, and an angry Jedi with scarred tissue where his eyes should be is actually kind of terrifying.

“A lightsaber can slice through whole limbs,” he says, off-handedly, and she glares at him futilely.

The door to Sabine’s room opens, and she comes out not only with her jacket and a bag full of credits, but the beginnings of some sort of bomb. _Typical Sabine,_ Ketsu thinks fondly. Sabine looks cautiously between them.

“You two aren’t fighting, right?” She asks.

“Of course not,” Kanan says, the lie slipping easily off of his tongue.

“Yeah,” Ketsu lies, “what would give you that idea?”

Sabine laughs a little and says, “I just wanted to be sure. C’mon, Ket, I wanted to try to show you this new idea of mine before we go planetside.”

Sabine starts to make her way off of the ship, and says, “Bye Kanan, I’ll see you later.”

“I won’t see you at all,” he calls out, but his tone is joking.

“Oh my god,” Sabine groans, but it’s a happy, fond sort of groan. Apparently, blind jokes are a thing with them now. He laughs as Sabine drags Ketsu off of the ship, and Ketsu feels even more confused than before.  


3.

 

Aside from Sabine, the crew of the _Ghost_ has tended to avoid Ketsu whenever they’re not required to interact with her. Basically, that means that she only sees them on _The Ghost_ and doesn’t have to deal with them otherwise. In a lot ways, that makes her life easier. But then, one day when she is walking in the halls of the largest ship in the rebel fleet, she spots Zeb. She briefly considers turning a corner and taking a different route, but he has spotted her before she can take that out.

“Ketsu,” he says, “I don’t think that we’ve ever talked.”

“Yeah,” she says, sounding confused, “ we haven’t.” Then Zeb takes out his bo-rifle, and ignites the electric end. Ketsu internally groans as she realizes where this conversation is heading.

“Have you ever tried to fight a lasat?” Zeb asks.

“Is everyone from your  ship going to threaten me?” Ketsu asks seriously.

“Probably,” he says with what might be a smile but might might also be a sneer.

He pauses a moment, and then asks, “Wait, the rest of them haven’t yet?”

“Hera and Kanan both have,” she says, “and now you are.” She can hear her own irritation creeping into her voice. Ketsu understands their concerns, but _honestly,_ this is going a bit overboard.

The lasat laughs at that, deep and guttural and says, “Kid, I ain’t threatening you now. If I were threatening you, you’d know.”

“Why do all of you care so much?” She asks before she can stop herself, “I know that you care about her, but why go through all of.. _this?”_ Ketsu is used to people not caring, which is why she and Sabine ended up as close as they did. That’s also why she cut and run when caring got tough. She thought that caring about people was a weakness, but now she doesn’t know. Now, she’s starting to suspect that it might actually be a strength to care about people.

“Look,” he says sounding distinctly less amiable than earlier, “the Empire slaughtered pretty much my entire species. I’m not gonna let you hurt my new family.” Ketsu goes silent after that, and the ends of Zeb’s bo-rifle sizzle and crackle again. Shivers spread across Ketsu’s spine, and she suddenly realizes how _deadly_ serious all of these people are taking this. She reminds herself that she doesn’t have anything to worry about, because she never plans on hurting Sabine like that again.

Ketsu nods, and says, “Fair enough.” He turns off his weapon and almost grins at her.

“That wasn’t so hard,” he says, and Ketsu nods. Then, he turns around and goes on his merry way. Ketsu sighs in relief.

  
4.   


Ketsu almost feels welcome on board the _Ghost_ now. Sabine’s makeshift family seems to have started to grudgingly accept her presence. They’re going to have to. Ketsu is never going to leave Sabine again.  The only way that they’ll break up is if Sabine does the breaking herself.

“Read ‘em and weep,” Ketsu says, showing Sabine her nearly perfect Sabacc hand. Sabine looks at it in shock.

“You cheated,” she says, starting to laugh.

“Oh come on, Bine,” Ketsu says, “do you really think that I’d cheat? Me?”

“Yes,” Sabine says, and Ketsu starts laughing too.

“Alright,” Ketsu says, “fair enough. But even if I did cheat, you can’t prove it.” Ketsu, for the record, did not cheat, even though she _has_ cheated in previous hands. She just got incredibly lucky this time. She can hear Ezra groaning from the other room.

“Can you two flirt somewhere else?” He shouts, “I’m trying to _meditate.”_

“You don’t meditate,” Sabine shoots back, “you’re trying to take a nap without Kanan getting mad.” Ezra doesn’t respond, and Ketsu assumes that means that Sabine is right.

“Don’t I get a kiss for that hand?” Ketsu asks, and Sabine grins which means that the suggestion was completely in bounds and a good tactic to store away for future use. Sabine leans in for a kiss, and Ketsu is greeted by a shock to her leg.

“ _Kiff,”_ she shouts, Sabine breaks away and sends her a confused look.

“Ket?” She asks. Ketsu looks around for the source of that _searing pain_ and finds their droid right beside the table.

“Your droid shocked me,” Ketsu says.

“He’s a good judge of character,” dead-pans Hera, who still really, _really_ doesn’t like her.

“Good work, Chop,” Zeb says, and the droid makes happy beeping noises in response. Ketsu groans. She kind of doubts that she will ever win over Sabine’s family, but she supposes that she doesn’t _deserve_ to. She doesn’t deserve to have Sabine back in the first place. Ketsu appreciates the fact that they’re tolerating her enough to make up for it.  


5.

 

A few more months pass by, and Ketsu keeps expecting to get the talk from Ezra. Every other member of the crew has threatened her, the droid included, so Ketsu’s a bit confused about why the Jedi-in-training has held his tongue. He seems to have as close of a relationship to her as the rest of them, and he always seemed cocky to her, sure of himself, like he wouldn’t hesitate to jump head first into a fight. Ketsu has kind of been hoping that he hasn’t confronted her yet because he likes her. Maybe he actually thinks that she's good for Sabine. 

 

Eventually, Ketsu confronts him about it. He’s working on some project on the main rebel ship, and none of the rest of the _Ghost_ crew can be found. Ketsu realizes that it’s as good of a time as any to talk to him alone.

“Ezra?” Ketsu asks. The kid doesn’t look up from whatever he’s trying to build, and Ketsu asks again. He looks almost excited to be spoken to, but his excitement dies the moment he realizes who it is.

“Ketsu,” he says coldly. Ketsu laughs in response.

“What’s so funny?” He demands.

“I’d almost let myself think that you hadn’t threatened me yet because you liked me,” Ketsu says. She had hoped that maybe, just maybe, _one_ of the people on this damn ship wouldn’t hate her guts. Ezra hadn’t seemed to hold a grudge against her after she and Sabine first met again, but she supposes that was before they got back together. Sabine said that Ezra used to have a crush on her, and Ketsu dating her probably didn’t endear her to him. But still, she was holding out some hope that the boy Sabine sees as a little brother wouldn’t hate her as much as the rest of them.

Ezra laughs, and says, “Trust me, that’s not the reason.”

“Then why haven’t you taken out your lightsaber to show that you mean business?” Ketsu says sarcastically. Kanan stole her blaster, Zeb drew his bo-rifle on her, and Chopper literally shocked her. She wouldn’t expect Ezra to threaten her unarmed. The sad look he sends her when she mentions his lightsaber is hard to place.

“I don’t have one anymore,” he growls. And _okay,_ Ketsu didn’t realize that. She probably wouldn’t have used that for her example if she’d know that.

“You could have done something else,” she says, “surely there’s some other thing Jedis can do to scare the shit out of former bounty hunters.” She can think of at least one that’s already been done to her.

“I don’t need to threaten you,” he says in an icy tone that’s almost a threat by itself, “Sabine trusts you.” She sends him a questioning look, and he deigns to clarify his answer.

“I trust her judgement more than mine,” Ezra says, and it sounds like a bitter joke. Ketsu isn’t privy to most of the information surrounding the Malachor incident, but she knows that Ezra was involved, and she knows that Sabine thinks that he’s blaming himself for Kanan’s blindness and Fulcrum’s death. Judging by the bitterness and guilt in his tone, Ketsu would bet that her girlfriend is correct.

‘I’m sorry,” Ketsu says, and she realizes that it’s the first time that she’s tried to connect with him emotionally.

“I don’t want your pity,” he grumbles.

“I understand,” She says.

“Not wanting your pity?” He asks, sounding like he thinks that she’s completely stupid.

“Not trusting yourself,” She says, rolling her eyes, “I thought that no one would ever care about me again after what I did to Sabine.”

“Yeah?” He asks.

“I lost myself,” she says, “went darker than I’d ever intended to, and never thought that I’d come back from it.  But Sabine forgave me, and then I started to forgive myself and try to own up to my mistakes.” Ezra looks down at the thing that he’s tinkering with and refuses to meet her eyes. Ketsu takes a deep breath and finishes her speech.

“If I can forgive myself after everything that I’ve done,” she says, “then so can you.” Ezra sends her a blind-sided look, but Ketsu just leaves. She doesn’t know how she would have continued the conversation, and she’s too emotional to try.

 

+1

 

Ketsu doesn’t really think that it’s her place to tell Sabine about what Ezra told her, so she doesn’t. But when Sabine comes to her quarters that night, they do end up talking about her family.

“Your family _really_ doesn’t like me,” Ketsu breaths into Sabine’s neck.

“They’ll get over it,” Sabine says. It sounds like she honestly believes that, which Ketsu finds interesting and a little bit heartwarming. Sabine honestly thinks that her family is as forgiving as she is.

“Maybe they won’t have to,” Ketsu says. She doesn’t understand why Sabine _forgave_ her,  so she definitely doesn’t understand why Sabine wants to _date_ her. It would have been so much easier for Sabine to have nothing to do with her. And it must be awful for her to have her family (who Ketsu knows that she loves and values over everything else) hate her choice of partner.

“Are you suggesting we break up?” Sabine asks, sounding shocked, angry, and _insulted_.

“Yes… I mean, no,” Ketsu says, pausing for a moment, “maybe?” Sabine’s face falls, and she breaks away from Ketsu.

“Are you going to leave me again?” She asks, her voice cracking slightly.

“No,” Ketsu says, “of course not, Bine. Never again.”

Sabine manages a smile, and then says, “Then they can deal with it.” Ketsu kisses her like she means it, like she’ll never let go, and Sabine kisses right back.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope that you enjoyed this weird, cracky nonsense!


End file.
